In immersive visualization environments, images are projected on surfaces surrounding the viewer such as the four walls, floor, and ceiling of a room or even using a heads-up display. As the viewer moves and turns these images change, thus, creating an illusion of walking in the imaged environment. However, the movement of the viewer has to be confined to the immersive area within the room. The surface of the floor beneath the viewer has to compensate for movement, thereby placing the viewer at approximately the same position. In addition to these disadvantages, the viewer, in many cases, has to wear specialized head gear or glasses to view the scene. This restricts the viewer's freedom to move in any direction and also constrains the visualization of the immersive scenes.
The movement of a viewer in an immersive environment is typically in two dimensions—forward and lateral motion of the viewer. In addition to two-dimensional translations along the plane of the floor, the viewer may rotate as well. A motion-compensating surface under the feet of the viewer must accommodate rotations. Presently, there is no such motion-compensating surface that can account for translations in both directions on the plane and rotation of viewer locomotion.
Viewer motion-compensation mechanisms such as large spherical shells on rollers or treadmill-type mechanisms, for example, require large spaces and are cumbersome. The spherical devices require that the user operate from inside the sphere. This device cannot be used for immersive environments where the scene is projected onto the natural surroundings of the viewer and requires space to accommodate a sphere whose diameter is larger than the height of the viewer.
The treadmill-type devices are extremely cumbersome and complex to operate, requiring sophisticated sensors and layers of hardware interfaces that have to perform synchronously. The treadmill device is predominantly a one-dimensional (1-D) system, although there is the possibility of a 2-D treadmill, or walking in a giant ball, but these require a large space underneath the user. A robotic-tile system is different from the treadmill-type devices and ball system, and requires the rearrangement of tiles while the viewer is moving. The speed of rearrangement of the tiles underneath constrains the speed and rotation in motion of the viewer.
A powered shoes design requires the viewer to wear specialized roller skates to compensate for locomotion. The active roller skates design does not allow the user to run or burst into quick sprints—the viewer has to be comfortable and skilled in roller skating. A new system employs shoes that are tied (or tethered) to motors on a turntable on which the user moves. However, this is a very unreliable contraption that requires the user to wear special shoes. Moreover, the use of strings and motors introduces an inertial lag in the user experience related at least to ramp up and low down during user movement on the turntable.